Particularly in microinvasive uses, medical instruments are becoming ever smaller. To be able to insert the medical instruments through ever smaller accesses, or through thin work channels in other larger medical instruments, their shanks and their tools at the distal ends of the shanks need to have ever smaller cross sections. At the same time, a high-quality medical instrument should be able to be completely cleaned in a simple way and re-used as often as possible. The required mechanical robustness presupposes that the medical instrument has a simple and uncomplicated structure and is composed of the smallest possible number of components.